They have
apparently diagnosed her with all kinds of ailments using the long disproven
Fox-Drudge equation.”

“This
attention on Clinton has renewed some interest in the letter Donald Trump
released last year from his personal physician,” she continued.

Dr.
Gunter then explains that while “many outlets” have picked the letter apart,
she wants “to tell you as a doctor exactly how bad it is.”

I
would never write anything this terrible for a Jury Duty excuse or a back to
work note, never mind something that half the country (and possibly half the
world) might see or could possibly end up one day in a Presidential Library!

Writing
that “there are so many issues with the letter,” Dr. Gunter details 8 key
issues she finds with the letter.

“1. The
header has a non-working web address and doctors don’t include e-mail addresses
in letters.”

As
Dr. Gunter explains: “It is incredibly rare for doctors to include an e-mail
address in this kind of correspondence because we don’t want the person
receiving the letter (e.g. the entire press corps or the place of work or the
disability insurance company) to e-mail back with questions about our patient’s
health. This could lead to a HIPAA (privacy) violation. Also, Gmail is not
a secure method of communication, so most doctors don’t want to use it for
medical information.”

“Dr. Bornstein is
affiliated with Lenox Hill, but he is not part of their Division
of Gastroenterology. There also isn’t a Department of Medicine there is aDivision of
General Internal Medicineand Dr. Bornstein isn’t a member
of that either,” Dr. Gunter writes, adding that: “It is also very odd for a
doctor in a private practice to use their admitting privileges address under
their signature if it is not the same as their practice address.”

“3. The letter starts with a
typo.”

“To
Whom My Concern.” As Dr. Gunter writes, we are all guilty of typos but if one
was writing a letter of this import – it is not that difficult to have it
checked for errors.

Dr.
Gunter elaborates, writing “’Only positive results’; is gibberish. Some tests
are good if they are positive and some are bad if they are positive. […] And
while we’re at it doctors just don’t say “laboratory test results” that sounds
like something on a soap opera.

“5. Doctors don’t say “’test score’ we
just give the results.”

And
as Dr. Gunter points out: “A test score is something that happens at the DMV.”

“6. How did Dr. Bornstein test Donald
Trump’s strength and stamina?”

“Did
he have him bench press in the office? Do a treadmill test?” Dr. Gunter asks,
adding that “Doctors just don’t typically write vague, quasi-medical things in
letters. I’ve also never heard of a stamina test. An internist mighttest muscle strengthas part of a physical
exam, but the results are graded 0-5 and 5 is not secret code for extraordinary
it’s code for normal.”

“7. The
healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

Noting
that “Every news site has pointed out how ridiculous this is,” Dr. Gunter
explains that “Dr. Bornstein is not a medical historian who runs a Presidential
health archives and obviously Washington and Lincoln never had their PSA
checked for comparison.The first blood pressure cuffwas invented in 1881, so
yeah.”

8. There is no useful health
information.

As
Dr. Gunter explains: “Someone with Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s could have a
normal blood pressure, normal PSA, take 81 mg aspirin and be on a “low dose”
(we don’t know the exact dose or type) statin. So could someone with diabetes
or someone who had a heart stent placed last year or who had a stroke four
years ago.”

Dr.
Gunter goes on to discuss a few anomalies with the letter that don’t concern
her and concludes, writing:

It’s
a terrible letter.

Did Dr.
Bornstein write it? If so he should be embarrassed. It’s medically illiterate
and if he doesn’t know his website doesn’t work or if that he’s not in the
Division of Gastroenterology that’s an issue.

Did Trump write
it? He’ll never tell. It certainly reads like a letter written by someone with
close to no knowledge of Dr. Bornstein’s practice or medicine.

All I can say is
typos and weird links and mentions of non-existent sections of gastroenterology
and nonsensical medical information aside the letter provides essentially no
medical information.

Samuel
Warde is a writer, social
and political activist, and all-around troublemaker.

Thought for the day

“Charlottesville is a great place that’s been very badly hurt over the last couple of days. I own, actually, one of the largest wineries in the United States. It is in Charlottesville.”

Donald Trump, responding to a question whether he would go to Charlottesville to offer support and comfort as so many Presidents have done in the past.

Quick fact check: Donald Trump does not own the winery; his idiot son Eric does under the name Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing LLC. And at 36,000 cases annual production, the winery is not even the largest winery in Virginia, never mind the United States.

Information and Feedback

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